A Father's Love Trunks and Vegeta
by Zone-Blitz
Summary: My third songfic, first attempt at Dragon Ball Z. Song is a Father's Love by Bucky Covington. Talks about the strange relationship between The Saiyan Prince and his son, especially Vegeta's ways of expressing his feelings. Dedicated to Freur de Nacht.


I first heard this song in the car and my first thought was oh my God, it's Trunks and Vegeta. A week later I mentioned to my sister I mentioned I was doing a Trunks/Vegeta song fic, and the first words out of her mouth were, "A fathers love?" I figured if we both had the same thought it was meant to be.

This is my attempt to navigate around my writers block on "A saiyan named Gohan." I had four or five more chapters already written and then Freur de Nacht, crushed me with a one line review filled with doubting skepticism.

Freur I'm going to say thank you, because with one review you've pushed me to become a better writer, which is more than I can say for 10 different professional English teachers.

Freur I dedicate this to you for being awesome. Don't change.

Original song is, "A father's love" by Bucky Covington.

(http:/ www . youtube . com/watch?v=d1VRjEl8C60) delete the spaces obviously

**For the longest time, I guess I thought  
He didn't give a damn  
Hard to read, hard to please  
Yeah, that was my old man  
On the day I left for college  
It was nothing new  
We never had that heart-to-heart  
He had too much to do **

There was a time when I thought my dad was just a jack ass plain and simple. I was a younger kid at the time and I saw how Gohan and Goten interacted. I knew Goten didn't have his dad, and that I did. I'm ashamed to admit that I was jealous. My best friend was just so damn happy when he played with his big brother, and my dad, well my dad was too obsessed with reaching Super Saiyan 2, to do anything more than train, either with me or by himself.

**He checked the air in my tires  
The belts and all the spark plug wires  
Said "When the hell's the last time  
"You had this oil changed"  
And as I pulled out the drive  
He said "Be sure and call your mom sometime"  
And I didn't hear it then  
But I hear it now  
He was saying "I love you"  
He was saying "I love you"  
The only way he knew how **

I still remember the day I moved out of Capsule Corp. Mom was bawling like a baby and making a huge fuss out of everything. She was complaining that dad wasn't out here to say good bye to me. Then out of nowhere dad walked out.

I was having trouble breathing from shock that dad actually seemed to think my moving out was important enough to take a break from training. Then I was having trouble breathing because Dad hit me in the gut so hard I saw stars. While I was still having problems getting air into my lungs, he flipped me up into the air, and then over handed jackhammered me creating a massive crater on the Capsule Corp lawn.

"Always keep your guard up boy. If you don't, someone's going to beat your ass. Stay proud. You're a prince of a fine and mighty race. Act like it."

Then almost as an after thought, "Keep in contact with the woman, she gets bitchy when you're not around." He then turned around and quickly went inside.

At the time I thought I was delirious from pain, but looking back now, I think my father had a tear running down his cheek. At that moment my father was actually proud of me, and the aching pain in my gut meant more to me than any warm feeling from a hug, Goten ever got from his brother.

**120,000 miles  
Six years down the road  
A brand new life and a brand new wife  
We'd just bought our first home  
When he finally came to visit  
I thought he'd be so proud  
He never said he liked the place  
He just got his tool belt out **

I remember the day I announced that I was going to marry Pan. Gohan, Videl, and Mom were in hysterics, all three were so emotional they were crying. I searched the room for my father, and found him leaning against the back wall watching his wife and the parents of my fiancée make fools of themselves. I could tell from the way the veins in his forehead were pounding, that his irritation was growing rapidly. When he felt he had listened to enough, he broke through the crowd and dragged me into the Gravity Room.

**And put new locks on the doors  
Went back and forth to the hardware store  
Said "Come and hold this flashlight"  
As he crawled beneath the sink  
And "These old wires ain't up to code"  
And "That circuit box is gonna overload"  
And I didn't hear it then  
But I hear it now  
He was saying "I love you"  
The only way he knew how **

The spar that followed was one of the roughest of my life. I got into my stance and a second later a fist smashed into my face.

"Always be ready Trunks, the enemy isn't going to wait for you to get ready."

He threw a kick at my chest, and I was too slow to dodge it. I hit the wall of the gravity room and felt the increased gravity send me into the ground almost as hard as Dad kicked me.

"Your footwork's sloppy. Always keep a stable base, it makes your strikes that much quicker and it allows you to move faster."

More hits connected, always followed by words of wisdom like, "Keep your arms up and you won't have to block all my hits with your face." And "Don't put off your training or you'll never get around to it and you'll get weak." And "A Saiyan never quits or bows under pressure. If something is kicking your ass, you get up and fight them until you win or you die."

After about five hours of him beating my ass he finally seemed content that I had learned enough and he left me in the gravity room, bleeding on the ground. That was dad, never one for deep emotional conversations, the excruciating pain coming from ever fiber of my being, brought back oddly nostalgic memories of my childhood.

I almost missed the distant shout of, "Call the woman, she tries to act motherly when she misses you, and Bulla and I are sick of eating burned dog shit or whatever it is the woman cooks."

**Last Sunday, we all gathered  
For his 65th birthday  
And I knew he'd stiffen up  
But I hugged him anyway  
When it was finally time to say goodbye  
I knew what was next  
Just like he always does  
Right before we left **

Only Dad would be late for his 80th birthday because he was sparring. He and Goku showed up half an hour late, both looking bruised and slightly singed around the edges. There was the nasty smell of burned fur which confirmed my theory that they were both in Super Saiyan 4 when they were sparring. If mom found out they'd both be in trouble, she thought Super Saiyan 4 put too much stress on his heart.

Out of nowhere I felt the urge to do something, and I acted on it. I pulled him into a hug. This was the second time we hugged in my entire life. I remember the first one, out on the burned battle field after his battle with Goku.

Mom will occasionally make a comment about dad not pretending to be a prince anymore. I sometimes wonder if mom was crazy, because as far as I could tell he never pretended to be anything. Dad isn't the guy who walks around Capsule Corp or goes shopping with my sister.

Dad is the guy who hugged me on that field in the middle of nowhere, bruised and bleeding with that giant evil M on his forehead. Dad's the guy who fought for what he believed in. Dad's the guy who gave up his life with a defiant smirk on his face to save all of our skins from the giant pink evil called Majin Buu.

**He checked the air in my tires  
The belts and all the spark plug wires  
Said "When the hell's the last time  
"You had this oil changed"  
And as I pulled out the drive  
He said "Be sure and call your mom sometime"  
And I didn't hear it then  
But I hear it now  
He was saying "I love you"  
He was saying "I love you"  
The only way he knew how  
**  
So, no Dad isn't Goku or Gohan, or even Piccolo. Dad's got a hard rigid shell covering a hard rigid core. He's a strong man, a proud man, and he doesn't show his emotions or express himself with words. He might say I love you to me with a jab to the gut, but that's just his way of doing things.

Mom and Chi-Chi will occasionally talk about how they worry about me, because Dad never told me he loved me. I just laugh it off. They might live around Saiyans but they'll never understand us. Dad told me he loved me plenty of times. It was just usually done in the privacy in the Gravity Room, when I was complaining that I couldn't go any farther. You can imagine how dad reacted to that.


End file.
